One of Apple's greatest strengths is timing. The company that's hailed for innovation does not often invent things first -- it didn't create the first personal computer, the first digital music player or the first smartphone. Instead, Apple reinvents, slipping in and producing something more original than what we used to use. On paper, Apple is aiming to pull the same trick with a device called HomePod. The $349 gadget -- which Apple unveiled on Monday at its annual developer conference and will begin shipping in December -- is inspired by the Amazon Echo, the smart speaker that houses Amazon's virtual assistant, Alexa, and that seemed like a joke until many people (including yours truly) suddenly began to love it.

According to the article Using Machine Learning on Compute Engine to Make Product Recommendations, a typical recommendation engine processes data through the following four phases namely collection, storing, analyzing and filtering. The first step in creating a recommendation engine is gathering data. Data can be either explicit or implicit data. Explicit data would consist of data inputted by users such as ratings and comments on products. And implicit data would be the order history/return history, Cart events, Pageviews, Click thru and search log.

Dating apps such as Tinder are increasing people's risk of catching a cancer-causing virus passed on through oral sex, dentists warn. Experts say almost half of adults will be infected with the human papilloma virus (HPV) at some point in their life. And while most infections disappear on their own, without even displaying symptoms, some strains can lead to cancer, notably cervical, which in around 90 per cent of cases is caused by HPV. It is also linked to penile, anal, throat, head and neck cancer, as well as genital warts. Hollywood actor Michael Douglas, 72, blamed oral sex for giving him throat cancer in 2010.

Many of us will encounter a marketing virtual agent on a near daily basis when being asked qualifying questions or providing automated answers to standard questions, however their potential goes far beyond this and presents exciting opportunities at every stage of the customer journey. Voice assistants create an opportunity to interject compelling content into everyday situations, such as recipes in the kitchen, linked to an ecommerce platform. Recent research has shown that monotonous, repetitive tasks triggers automatic decision making and makes employees more likely to behave unethically. Sure, inertia and lack of technical expertise play a part, but many marketers hold a major question mark over AI's ability to perform a key part of their role: EMPATHY.

Apple in 2016 opened up Siri to bring the personal assistant to apps, but few developers have signed on. Jefferson Graham explains why, on #TalkingTech. LOS ANGELES -- Hey Siri, who are you reporting to now? Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president in charge of software, has added the Siri personal digital assistant to his portfolio, which includes the Macintosh MacOS and mobile iOS operating systems. Siri was previously run by fellow Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue.

Amazon Alexa is breaking free of the Echo. First she made friends with Cortana, and now she's popping up in the Lenovo Tab 4, thanks to the Home Assistant accessory introduced Thursday at IFA in Berlin. When the Home Assistant ships in October (for $70), you'll be able to dock the Tab 4 or Tab 4 Plus to it and run all Alexa functions off the tablet. The Home Assistant handles the audio portion, picking up your voice commands and responding for Alexa. The dock adjusts to fit the 8-inch and 10-inch tablet sizes in the Tab 4 line.

The venture capital arms of big corporates like Citi, Salesforce, Tencent, and NVIDIA have each made several investments in the AI space. In every year since 2012, corporate VCs have engaged in escalating levels of investment activity to artificial intelligence startups. The trend is poised to reach an all-time high in 2017: in the first half of this year, the venture capital arms of corporations participated in $1.8B worth of disclosed equity funding across 88 deals to private AI companies, already exceeding last year's funding total. If the pace of CVC financing continues, AI startups will see 166 deals in 2017, for a nearly 30% increase from last year's total of 128 deals. In this briefing we will cover the future of cybersecurity as it relates to the implementation of artificially intelligent systems for preventative digital defense.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Apple's HomeKit smart home ecosystem might not have the same cool factor as Amazon Alexa, but it's still a compelling solution, especially if you own lots of Apple devices. Just as Amazon Alexa requires you to own an Echo speaker, Apple HomeKit requires an iPhone. And if you want remote control of your devices (which trust me, you will), you'll also need an always-on iPad left at home or an Apple TV. Since it's cheaper and more practical to leave at home, we recommend going with an Apple TV as your HomeKit hub.

This new smart speaker is cheaper than the Dot--but is it worth it? If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Smart home technology was once nothing more than a lofty dream, but we've finally reached a point where not only do we have a slew of smart devices to control nearly everything in our homes, but they're starting to be super affordable. Take the Amazon Echo Dot.

Netflix's stoner comedy "Disjointed" was not lighting anyone's fire this summer, according to critics. The newly released Netflix show became the lowest-reviewed series this summer on Rotten Tomatoes. The show stars Academy Award-winner Kathy Bates and follows her character who runs a medical marijuana dispenser. Netflix ordered 20 episodes and released 10 of them on Aug. 25. Rotten Tomatoes created a list of the summer's newest releases based on reviews.